Interview with CEO Hugh Marks on The Constant Investor

Good interview from Alan Kohler with Hugh Marks - great info that each 1% rating point is worth $25m!

https://theconstantinvestor.com/nine-entertainment-still-one/ (paywall, $1)

Just on the ratings, I mean I’m obviously very interested in getting into Nine Now and the digital work that you’re doing, but is it fair to say that the key reason you’ve won the ratings is Married at First Sight.
Married at First Sight is a really big show for us because it is the time of the year where historically Nine struggled in our competition with other broadcasters and we were getting hammered by Kitchen Rules for a number of years.  So to be beating Kitchen Rules consistently now and this year, again, television’s not dead, we’ve grown the audience of Married at First Sight somewhere between 5 and 10 per cent depending on the demographic, that’s in thousands, and we’ve grown the audience in Nine Now by about 83,000.
But to be able to beat Kitchen Rules at the top of the year and be very competitive has made a huge difference for the momentum for us across the whole year.  But there’s a number of things that continue to perform – News, Ninja, The Block, The Voice…  All of these things have performed really well for us.
Yeah, they have.  What do you think is the secret of Married at First Sight’s success?
It’s just compelling content, I mean…
Is it just about sex?  Is it kind of ’50 Shades of Grey’ on TV?
No, ultimately, it’s about love and people generally – one of the three things that you crave in your life and love and relationship would be right up there at the top.  It’s that everybody wants a fairy tale and I think the show talks to that and of course, no fairy tale is perfect and the show talks to that.  We have to be very careful with that show to maintain the balance between controversy and love and some years will differ to others but at the end of the day, very focused on making sure that that show is about love and aspiration.
You’ve increased your margin on the Nine Network quite a lot I think from 19% to 27%.  What’s behind that?
Well, that will happen when you grow your revenue and not your costs.
Right, of course.  I’m just interested in how you’re able to keep your costs flat while increasing your revenue?
Well, we do have a really conscious policy of investing in areas that are driving bigger revenues.  We’re under-investing in content and back office and things that weren’t delivering a revenue result and reallocating that investment to content that is driving a better revenue result.  We just do that in every decision we’re making, trying to incrementally improve the outcome for the business.  Again, the explosion of the world makes that possible, so less US content at a higher price, more local content, better sales result, better margin.